This was a 10 per cent increase on the previous quarter. However, while this is encouraging, the numbers are well down on the peak of £12.4bn lent in the third quarter of 2007.
Landlords continue to face a challenge in trying to secure finance. While lenders are cautious about lending in the mainstream markets, they are even more so in the buy-to-let arena. There are far fewer loans avaialble than before the credit crunch while criteria are tighter, deposits need to be bigger and fees are higher.
The godsend for many landlords has been the cheap 'go to' rate that their deal has reverted to at the end of the initial fixed or tracker period so remortgaging can be put on hold for now. The CML said that only £840m was lent to landlords remortgaging in the third quarter as no deals were available to those borrowing more than 80 per cent of the property value. But unless more deals become available as interest rates start to rise, landlords could struggle.
The number of landlords in arrears also fell for the third quarter in a row, with 20,500 people in arrears of at least 1.5 per cent of their outstanding mortgage at the end of September. This was down from 22,900 three months earlier.